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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Mar 31, 2014
Description:
Bad news piled upon bad news.
(1) The routine maintenance inspections found multiple fine cracks in the engine mount. The SeaRey was unairworthy (repair, if it could be done, would take at least a week);
(2) The repair station was unusually busy preparing for a weekend air show;
(3) A subtropical cyclone was bearing down on the North Island;
(4) Authorization to return to Auckland Harbour would not be approved without a sit down meeting and briefing; and,
(5) SuRi had to launch immediately after the cyclone passed to meet its schedule.
Unless all went perfectly the SeaRey would either have to be loaded on to a truck and moved to the Auckland port, or I’d have to (get to?) fly it across the Tasman Sea to Australia.
Despite the million phone calls to get everything to work, there was time to visit the airport museum. A flightless De Havilland Devons handing on the wall with its Kiwi emblem was warning enough of the consequence of any failure in my task.
Date Taken:
Mar 31, 2014
Place Taken:
Classic Flyers NZ Museum, Tauranga, NZ
Owner:
Dan Nickens
File Name:
Grounded_Bird.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZDWD0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZDWD0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZDWD0000s">
Category:
446, Yacht Tending NZ
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Click on photo to view the original size. |
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Read what others had to say:
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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The local Rotax repair station, Solo Wings, worked relentlessly to restore the SeaRey to flight status. Their work was impeccable, but time was not in our favor. I told the shop owner not to let cost be a factor in his efforts. Compared to the cost of shipping the airplane or flying it across the sea, whatever he charged would be inconsequential. I was told that work would be completed as quickly as possible without any added incentive.<br /><br />An old deHavilland DH89B Dominie arrived to show it is possible to restore an airplane to flight without regard to its age or the abuse to which it had been subjected.<br />
| | Attachments:
UnGrounded Oldie
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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There was a fine old float off of a huge Pacific Sunderland at the museum. Even the Sunderland would not have wanted to fly in the wind and deluge from the weakened cyclone crossing the North Island. The only good news was that it was a fast mover.
| | Attachments:
Fine Old Float
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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In less than a week the guys at Solo Wings had restored the SeaRey to flight ready status. With some last minute tweaks it was ready to head back north and into battle with the Harbour bureaucrats.<br /><br />A break in the clouds highlighted a gull that dropped in for a visit. A good omen?<br />
| | Attachments:
Almost Ready to Fly
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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The last minute tweaks were done. The rain was past. The meeting was set with the bureaucrats. The SuRi was waiting. All I had to do was fight the headwind to get the SeaRey back north.
| | Attachments:
Race for Home
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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Maunganui might be stuck between the land and sea, but the SeaRey was flying free…and into a fierce headwind…but, free flying at any speed is better than being stuck to the ground.
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Blowing Away
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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Let the trees guard against the wind! It’s so much better to flow with the wind than fight against it.
| | Attachments:
Tree Guards
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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When Captain Cook arrived in 1769 he named the river “Thames” because of its resemblance to his home country. The name didn’t stick to the river, but it did to the town at its mouth.
| | Attachments:
Old World Like
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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The Firth of Thames is a shallow bay teaming with all the stuff wading birds like to eat. Thousands of Arctic nesting birds spend the winter here. Forty three species are said to love it here, including bar-tailed godwit, turnstones, sandpipers, red-necked stint, pied oystercatchers, wrybills, banded dotterels and pied stilts.
| | Attachments:
Big Brown Bay
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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A godwit tagged in Alaska was tracked making an 11,570 km (7200 miles) nonstop flight to here.
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Shallow Streaks
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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Red chert ( jasper) has been mined on the island since 1908. The rock is quarried for aggregate chips. It’s not volcanic, but mudstone altered by heat and pressure into something metamorphic.
| | Attachments:
Island Mine
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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Across the channel from the mined out island was another derelict ship. Mining for red chert also occurred on this island, but it was abandoned in the 1920’s in favor of the other deposit. It looks like the mine wasn’t the only thing abandoned.
| | Attachments:
Last Port
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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The water was rough out in the Hauraki Gulf, but no worries for me. I was headed to the welcoming smooth concrete surface of Dairy Flats (North Shores) aerodrome.
| | Attachments:
Rough Point
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Dan Nickens - Mar 31,2014
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It has been 550 years since the volcano (Rangitoto) last erupted. Flying over Auckland’s most recent volcano, I hoped my local flights could be completed in about that many tenths of hours. <br /><br />After parking the SeaRey, I lamented the upcoming meeting with bureaucrats to the sweet lady running the airport desk. Lynn was sympathetic. She explained her husband was a pilot for a seaplane operation out of Mechanics Bay in Auckland Harbour in the 60’s. “The boys loved it,” she said of the pilots. “They didn’t have a lot of regulations to bother them.”<br /><br />Things were a lot stickier at the Rogue SuRi SeaRey Remedial Training meeting. In excruciating detail the operational details and restrictions associated with the Auckland Harbour Seaplane Base were laid out. It was made abundantly clear that any seaplane operation had to be conducted out in the main channel. (A lot of trouble could have been avoided if I had arranged the meeting when I first arrived.) Three hundred Kiwi dollars later I had authorization to come back to the port and SuRi.<br /><br />Since the wind was still howling out in the harbour, I told the first mate I’d bring the SeaRey aboard early the next morning. That suited him fine. The day was almost over and the crew was ready to head out for a last evening on the town.<br /><br />The Captain saw me on the way out. He already knew that I had my approval to come back aboard. “Can you bring the SeaRey over now? I want to get out of here early tomorrow if the weather clears in the Tasman Sea.”<br /><br />“Oh, you have got to be kidding! The airplane has already been put away for the night. It’s the headwinds from a cyclone out there! 25 gusting to 35 is fine for a big yacht, not a little SeaRey. Have you seen the waves out in harbour? Ridiculous! I’ve just had the damage from this kind of nonsense repaired. The whole concept of bringing the airplane back is stupidly abusive!”<br /><br />Yep. I could have said all that. I thought it. Then, I wimped out. “Sure. I can do that.” <br /><br />Of course I knew that wouldn’t happen. I had just been briefed that it would take at least 24 hours and probably 48 hours to get clearance from the Harbour Master’s office. What I didn’t know is that the Captain had already gotten that clearance. (They were probably ready to get rid of all of us on SuRi, the pest ship.)<br /><br />Oh, well. There’s a mission to be completed! Another challenge to overcome! Damn the torpedoes! Full speed into the waves!<br /><br />The finish was nothing as dramatic as that. The wind was so strong that the little SeaRey was hovering as she lightly settled into the waves. It was as smooth a landing as I had had since the beginning of the trip. Other than big waves completely washing over the canopy during taxi, there was no drama at all. She was put aboard, dry cleaned, buttoned up and readied for the next time the call goes out for a flying wimp.<br /><br />
| | Attachments:
Volcanic View
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